Toilet system for trailers



Oct. 21, 1969 N. J. PALMER 3,473,171

TOILET SYSTEM FUR TRAILERS Original Filed March 10, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet1 0d. 21, 1969 PALMER TOILET SYSTEM FOR TRAILERS 2 Sheets-Sheet OriginalFiled March 10, 1965 1.x, 'EXTOR #965667 J fizz/Ma! nited States Patent3,473,171 TOILET SYSTEM FOR TRAILERS Norbert James Palmer, Playa DelRey, Calif., assignor to Monogram Industries, Inc., Culver City, Calif.,a corporation of California Original application Mar. 10, 1965, Ser. No.438,500.

Divided and this application Nov. 6, 1967, Ser. No.

Int. Cl. E03d 7/00; 301d 33/02 US. Cl. 4-78 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THEDISCLOSURE The present application is a division of my US. patentapplication Ser. No. 438,500 filed Mar. 10, 1965, now abandoned, and isassigned to the same assignee.

The present invention relates to toilet arrangements which areparticularly useful for installations in house trailers, boats, buses,trailers or in other mobile, semimobile or stationary installations.

The toilet arrangement described herein involves generally a toilet bowlmounted on a storage tank with a filter-pump assembly mounted within thetank to recirculate flushing fluid such as has been generally shown inthe copending application for patent of William F. Katona, et al., Ser.No. 590,757, now United States Patent No. 3,356,221, issued Dec. 5,1967. While similar arrangements have heretofore been provided for usein aircraft, the present arrangement is featured by its simplicity,inexpensiveness and compactness.

It is therefore a general object of the present invention to provide animproved toilet arrangement particularly useful in a practical andcommercial sense for the above indicated purposes.

The features of the present invention which are believed to be novel areset forth with particularity in the appended clairns. This inventionitself, both as to its organization and manner of operation, togetherwith further objects and advantages thereof, maybe best understood byreference to the following description taken in connection with theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is generally a top plan view of a construction embodying featuresof the present invention, with some parts broken away to show internalconstructions.

FIG. 2 is a view in side elevation with a portion of the tank brokenaway, and corresponds generally to a View taken along line 2-2 of FIG.1.

FIG. 3 is a view taken substantially as indicated by line 33 in FIG. 2,with a portion of the odor seal broken away.

FIG. 4 is a view taken as indicated by the line 4-4 in FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken substantially on line 5-5 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken substantially on line 6-6 of FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken on line 7-7 of FIG. 2.

FIGS. 8 and 9 are sectional views taken on line 8-8 and 9-9,respectively, in FIG. 7.

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The bowl 10 and tank 12 may be integrally formed and may be of plasitcmaterial fabricated in accordance with conventional plastic mouldingtechniques, although it will be understood that, as illustrated, thebowl 10 and tank 12 may be separately formed and mechanically orchemically sealingly joined together. In some instances, the tank 12 maybe an existing tank on a house trailer normally used in storage of wastewater from the trailer sink, shower and/or lavatory and suitably adaptedto receive and mount the filter and pump assembly indicated at 14.

The assembly 14 includes a multipart housing 16 having an upper flangedportion 18 through which a series of screws 20 (FIG. 5) extends forfastening the assembly to the upper surface of tank 12 with a sealinggasket 22 sandwiched therebetween.

This multipart housing 16 is formed with a passageway 24 whichterminates in an upper nipple portion 26 for convenient attachment ofone end of a flexible hose 28 having its other end attached to a nippleportion 30 integrally formed with bowl 10 to thereby provide a confinedpath through which flushing fluid may flow from the tank 12 and intobowl 10 for return to the tank 12.

Preferably, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the throat portion 10A of bowl 10is generally elliptical and is fitted with a collapsible sleeve 10Bwhich is normally closed to provide an odor seal, but whichautomatically opens under slight fluid pressure exerted on the sleeve.

The toilet seat 32 is hingedly mounted by hinge structure 32A on a tank12 and has a cover 34 hinged thereto.

Referring now to the detailed construction of the pump filter assembly14 in FIG. 5, it is seen that the multipart housing 16 includes an uppercylindrical housing element 36 having the flanged portion 18 withinwhich a drive motor 38, a protective fuse, and a time delay motorcontrol switch 40 are disposed, the motor 38 being mounted on the baseportion 36A by bolts 42, with its shaft 38A extending into an annularchamber 44 defined by a cup shaped element 48 fitted within housingelement 50 and disposed between an internal shoulder portion 50A and anannular flanged portion 36B of housing element 36.

The time delay switch 40 is mounted on the cover member 52 by bolts 53,with a manually operable push button 54 extending through the cover. Theswitch 40 is of conventional construction and is operatively connectedto push button 54 such that depression and release of button 54 causesthe switch 40 to close and remain closed only for, for example, five orten seconds, at which time the switch times itself out and returns toits normally open condition. The switch 40 is connected electrically inseries with the motor 38 and power leads by flexible wires (not shown)in housing element 36. Such power leads sealingly entering the interiorof housing element 36 are also omitted from the drawings for purposes ofsimplicity.

Motor shaft 38A is coupled by flexible coupling element 54 to the upperend of an impeller pump shaft 56. The shaft 56 extends sealingly throughthe base portion 48A of housing element 48 and carries a small gear 58meshing with a larger gear 60 on shaft 62. The shaft 62 is in sealedchamber 64 which may be filled with a lubricant.

These shafts 56, 62 extend sealingly through the large base portion ofhousing element 50 which provides a bearing for the same and into andthrough the housing and space element 66 and also through a thick wallportion 68A of pump casing element 68 which provides a bearing for thelower ends of shafts 56, 62.

A pump impeller 70 is on shaft 56 and serves to pump fluid upwardly, asindicated by the arrows, in a path which extends through an aperturedportion 72A of a closure plate 72, such apertured portion beingcentrally aligned with the rotational axis of impeller 70 which acts asan element of a centrifugal pump to propel the fluid upwardly into theradially displaced passageway, or channel 24 defined by alignedapertured portions in elements 66 and 68.

The lower end of shaft 62 mounts a gear 76 meshing within an internalgear 78 integrally formed on a filter element 80 which is rotated at aslower speed than rotor or impeller 70. The filter element 80 iscup-shaped and in addition to being formed with the internal gear 78 isformed with a plurality of circumferentially extending slit portions 80Awhich limit the size of particles that may enter the pump chamber. Thefilter element 80 is rotatably supported and cleaned by two straps or L-shaped wiper elements 84, each of which has a series of toothed portions84A extending into outer circumferentially extending grooved portions80B on the filter element 80, each of such wiper elements 84 beingsupported as a cantilever by fastening screws 86 threaded into thestationary pump housing 68.

The base portion of the filter element may also be provided with one ormore series of slits, as indicated at 80C in FIG. 6.

The wipers 84 thus provide a bearing member for supporting the filterelement 80, and also the upper portion 80E of the filter element 80cooperates with a circular undercut portion 68D of pump housing 68 withsuch portion 68D also serving as a bearing element.

The housing elements 66, 68, 50 and 36 may be interconnected usingvarious techniques such as, for example, threaded fasteners asexemplified by a series of fasteners 90 in FIG. which serve tosemi-permanently interconnect the elements 66 and 50.

The lower end of tank 12 is shown closed by a gate valve assembly 100 ormay be fitted with a drain connection for a valve mounted under thefloor, and is secured to a floor F of, for example, a building such as atrailer using the following construction. (FIGS. 2, 7, 8 and 9.)

A drain pipe 102 is fitted with a threaded flange 104 which is securedto the floor F by screws 106.

The tank 12 is provided with an annular base portion 12A which rests onthe floor F. A part of this base portion is in the form of a removableclosure member 108 for gaining access to the drain valve 100 and gainingaccess to mounting studs 146 (FIG. 8).

The valve housing 110 or drain adaptor is secured to the tank 12 by aseries of screws 112 (FIG. 9) with an annular seal 116 within a groovedportion of tank 12 being contacted by a raised head portion of a plate118 that serves to retain the annular valve seat 120. A movable valvemember 124 in the form of a sliding gate is slidably mounting in housing110 for cooperation with the seat 120 to close the valve. The valve maybe opened by removing the closure member 108 and actuating the handle128, the handle 128 being on one end of a rod 130 attached to closuremember 124.

As seen in FIG. 2, the valve housing 110 is fitted into a heavy rubberring 140, as seen in FIG. 8, such ring 140 is clamped to the flange 104using a series of studs 146 and brackets 148.

As shown in FIG. 7, the closure member 108 is a fiexible curved plateand is provided with a hooked portion 108A at each of its ends wherebythe same may be quickly attached to and detached from the stationarybase porion 12A to gain access to the valve handle 128 or mounting studs146.

Initially, the tank 12 is precharged with a mixture of water andconventional chemicals to the level indicated in 4 FIG. 2. The bowl 10may be flushed at any time by depressing and releasing button 54 inwhich case fluid 111 tank 12 is circulated by the impeller pump 70, withthe filter basket rotating and being cleaned by the stationary fingerportions or blades 84A.

It will be seen that the assembly 14 may be convenientl disassembled asa unit from tank 12 for repair or replacement purposes by removing thefastening bolts 2.0, disconnecting the hose connection 28 and thenpulling the unit upwardly through the apertured portion in the uppersurface of tank 12 which normally supports the entire unit 14. When thisis accomplished, access is also had to the odor seal for replacementpurposes.

While the particular embodiments of the present invention have beenshown and described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art thatchanges and modifications may be made without departing from thisinvention in its broader aspects.

I claim:

1. A toilet system including a tank; a bowl mounted on said tank; saidtank having an upper surface with an apertured portion therein; afilter-pump assembly extending through said apertured portion; saidassembly having a flanged portion for supporting said assembly on saidupper surface; said assembly including a motor having an output shaft; apair of shafts extending within said assembly; a pump element on thelower end of one of said pair of shafts; means coupling the upper end ofsaid one shaft to said output shaft; a pump housing; a filter elementrotatably supported on said housing around said pump element said filterelement having a plurality of circumferentially extending groovedportions; a cleaner element mounted on said pump housing and having aseries of finger portions extending into said grooved portion forrotatably supporting and cleaning said filter element; said cleanerelement serving as the sole means for rotatably supporting said filterelement; first gear means between the upper ends of said pair of shaftsfor driving the other of said pair of shafts; and second gear meansbetween the lower end of the other of said pair of shafts and saidfilter element for rotating said filter element.

2. A system as set forth in claim 1 in which said assembly includes alubricant filled chamber, and said first gear means are within saidlubricant filled chamber.

3. A system as set forth in claim 1 in which said assembly includes afirst cup-shaped housing portion around said motor and through whichsaid output shaft extends; a second cup-shaped housing portion having abase portion through which said pair of shafts extend; a third cupshapedhousing portion within said second housing portion and having a baseportion, each of said base portions defining walls of said chamber.

4. A system as set forth in claim 3 in which said second cup-shapedportion includes an internal shoulder portion on which said thirdcup-shaped portion is supported.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,022,017 11/1935 Wardle 210-3573.067,433 12/1962 Dietz et a1 4-78 FOREIGN PATENTS 735,743 5/1943Germany.

H. HAMPTON HUNTER, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 210-357, 416

